Nur Alam Loses Wife, Only Child and Four In-Laws in TupTup Resort Fire That Killed Ten

Nur Alam, from Gazirpara village in Barakotha Union of Wazirpur Upazila in Barisal, has lost his wife, his only child, his brother-in-law and three sisters-in-law in the devastating fire at the TupTup Resort near Patuartek beach in Inani, Ukhiya, Cox's Bazar.

According to police and court sources, the fire broke out at the TupTup Resort on Saturday morning. Fire Service and Civil Defence personnel later recovered the burned bodies of ten people from the site.

At around 11 p.m. that day, Ukhiya Police Sub-Inspector Ashish Sutradhar filed a case alleging death by negligence. Four people were named in the case and nineteen others were listed as unidentified accused.

Nur Alam survived because he had returned to Chuadanga a day earlier for urgent office work, but a deep shadow of grief has descended on his life in an instant. He works in Chuadanga as a senior marketing officer for the private pharmaceutical company Drug International.

For work, he has lived for about eight years in a rented house in the South Hospital Para area of Chuadanga town with his wife and child.

Family sources said his wife, Faria Kabir, had been ill for some time. Despite her illness, they planned the trip to Cox's Bazar to spend some time with family members.

On Wednesday, Nur Alam went from Chuadanga to Dhaka with his wife Faria Kabir and their five-year-old only son, Faizan Nur. The next day, Thursday, they set off for Cox's Bazar with members of his in-laws' family.

After reaching Cox's Bazar, Nur Alam returned alone to Chuadanga on Friday because of urgent office work. But on Saturday morning, seeing news of the fire at the TupTup Resort in Inani in the media, he began searching for news of his relatives. At one stage he learned that six of those killed in the devastating fire were members of his own family.

The dead are Nur Alam's wife Faria Kabir (33), their five-year-old son Faizan Nur, his brother-in-law Nasir Uddin (25) and his three sisters-in-law Israt Jahan Maliha (30), Laila Jahan Nabila (27) and Milita Mehejabin Alvi (23). Several others were also killed or injured in the incident.

Among the burned are Dr Shihab Uddin of Mugda Medical College Hospital and his wife Nafiza Newaz Khan, Ismail Hossain Masud and his wife Meherun Nesa, Mannan and Samida. Ismail Hossain and his wife Meherun Nesa are the maternal uncle and aunt of the late Faria Kabir. Their home is in South Thetalia village in Matlab Uttar Upazila of Chandpur.

Nur Alam's father, Mohammad Ali Rarhi, said his son had never come to their village home in Wazirpur with his wife and child after his marriage. Although Nur Alam's in-laws' home is in Taltali, Patuakhali, they live permanently in the Banashree area of Dhaka. He said the news of losing six family members, including his daughter-in-law, grandson and his son's in-laws, is extremely painful for them. The family has initially decided to bury all the bodies in Dhaka.

The bodies will be handed over after identification is completed through DNA testing. That process may take three to four weeks. Having lost his wife, only child, brother-in-law and three sisters-in-law at once, Nur Alam is now speechless and barely speaking to anyone. The trip that was meant to be joyful family time has become the greatest grief of his life.